Sophia

Sophia, also called Sophia of the Palatinate, German Sophie von der Pfalz, (born Oct. 14, 1630, The Hague—died June 8, 1714, Herrenhausen, Hanover), electress of Hanover and heir to the British throne, whose son became George I of Great Britain.

Sophia was the 12th child of Frederick V, elector Palatine of the Rhine, by his wife Elizabeth, a daughter of the English king James I. Residing after 1649 at Heidelberg with her brother, the restored elector Palatine, Charles Louis, she married in 1658 Ernest Augustus, who became elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) in 1692.

Sophia became a widow in 1698, but before then her name had been mentioned in connection with the English throne. When considering the Bill of Rights in 1689 the House of Commons refused to place her in the succession, and the matter rested until 1700, when the state of affairs in England was more serious. William III was ill and childless; William, duke of Gloucester, the only surviving child of the princess Anne, had just died. The electress was the nearest Protestant heir. Accordingly, by the Act of Settlement of 1701 the English crown, in default of issue from either William or Anne, was settled upon “the most excellent princess Sophia, electress and duchess-dowager of Hanover” and “the heirs of her body, being Protestant.” Sophia watched affairs in England during the reign of Queen Anne with great interest, although her son, the elector George Louis, objected to any interference in that country, and Anne disliked all mention of her successor. An angry letter from Anne possibly hastened Sophia’s death in June 1714; less than two months later her son, George Louis, became king of Great Britain and Ireland as George I, on the death of Anne.